Monthly Archives: November 2011

Recap: Sanger, Awad, and Alwadi

We have had a busy and engaging couple of weeks in Peace and Conflict Studies with events on nonviolent resistance in the Middle East, U.S. foreign policy, mountaintop removal, and women and violence in the Congo.

Here are some pictures and video offered as a brief recap:

(click on the thumbnails below for larger images)

David Sanger

David Sanger

David Sanger addressed the college on October 27, 2011

Mubarak Awad

Mubarak AwadMubarak Awad

Prof. Mubarak Awad addressed the college and local community on November 7, 2011. Stay tuned for the video of Prof. Awad’s talk, which we will post here on the blog.

Nada Alwadi

Nada AlwadiNada AlwadiNada Alwadi

Bahraini journalist, Nada Alwadi, spoke on November 8, 2011. She visited with John Meyer of Pendle Hill after the event and posed for a picture with (L to R) Lee Smithey, Jim MacMillan, and Brahim El Guabli. After her appearance at Swarthmore, she moved on to address the International House of Philadelphia on November 11, 2011.

If you missed Nada Alwadi’s talk, you can hear her online. You can see her webinar with the International Center on Nonviolent Conflict.

Ms. Alwadi was also interviewed by Marty Moss-Coane on WHYY’s Radio Times on the morning following her presentation at Swarthmore. You can listen to the interview here.

Window on the Work: Meredith Rainey’s “Waiting Room”

The Swarthmore Project and the Dance Program will present Meredith Rainey’s “Waiting Room” as part of the Window on the Work series on Sunday, November 20th at 7PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center Troy Dance LAB (LPAC 2).  Please join us!
“Waiting Room” is set to the three selections from Franz Schubert’s Schwanengesang and explores the ideas of memory and mortality through the physicality of dance. Mortality is the physical reality all people face with their spirituality, intelligence, but most of all their bodies.

Meredith Rainey is the Carbon Dance Theatre Founder & Artistic Director.  In 1987, he joined the newly formed Pennsylvania-Milwaukee Ballet, remaining with the Pennsylvania Ballet when the collaboration ended as a soloist until his retirement in 2006. He is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships and has been commissioned to create works for Pennsylvania Ballet, Delaware Ballet, Hubbard Street 2, National Ballet De Cali, Ballet X, Danse 4 Nia and institutions such as Drexel University and Bryn Mawr Colleges. His work has been performed in North and South America and throughout Spain.

Window on the Work: Meredith Rainey’s “Waiting Room”

The Swarthmore Project and the Dance Program will present Meredith Rainey’s “Waiting Room” as part of the Window on the Work series on Sunday, November 20th at 7PM in the Lang Performing Arts Center Troy Dance LAB (LPAC 2).  Please join us!
“Waiting Room” is set to the three selections from Franz Schubert’s Schwanengesang and explores the ideas of memory and mortality through the physicality of dance. Mortality is the physical reality all people face with their spirituality, intelligence, but most of all their bodies.

Meredith Rainey is the Carbon Dance Theatre Founder & Artistic Director.  In 1987, he joined the newly formed Pennsylvania-Milwaukee Ballet, remaining with the Pennsylvania Ballet when the collaboration ended as a soloist until his retirement in 2006. He is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships and has been commissioned to create works for Pennsylvania Ballet, Delaware Ballet, Hubbard Street 2, National Ballet De Cali, Ballet X, Danse 4 Nia and institutions such as Drexel University and Bryn Mawr Colleges. His work has been performed in North and South America and throughout Spain.

Women in War Zones: Sexual Violence in the Congo

Women in War Zones: Sexual Violence in the Congo

Thursday, November 10, 2011

7:00 p.m.

Scheuer Room at Swarthmore College

(maps and directions)

photo by Julien Harneis
photo by Julien Harneis (CC license via flickr)

Women in War Zones International is a group of women dedicated to telling personal stories of women in areas of conflict around the world promoting human rights and health, working to prevent war crimes, and helping prevent abuse to women who live in war zones. The actual stories of women will be vividly told through photography and a documentary film screening.

The group seeks to fight injustice against women by education and uniting the audience. Their goal is to empower women by creating programs that promote peace, stability, and opportunities for women.

Sponsored by Peace and Conflict Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, and the Africa Consortium.

Nicholas Kristof to speak at Swarthmore on November 14

From our friends at the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility:

“A Call to Action: Encouraging People to join the World’s Fight.”

Nicholas Kristof

Monday, November 14, 2011

7:30 p.m.

Lang Performing Arts Center

Swarthmore College

(maps and directions)

A Harvard graduate and former Rhodes Scholar, Kristof is a Pulitzer-prize winning author and one of the New York Times‘ most popular columnists.

Drawing from his experiences as a foreign affairs reporter that have taken him to six continents and 140 countries, Kristof will talk about covering such historic events as the protests in Egypt that led to Hasni Mubarak’s resignation, the genocide in Darfur, the democracy movement in Tiananmen Square.

His talk will also by informed by his most recent best-seller, written with his wife Sheryl WuDunn, Half the Sky: From Oppression to Opportunity for Women World-wide. There they make a brilliantly-argued case that support for global women’s rights should be the human rights movement of our era, and that it will be where we find the solutions to the world’s poverty.

Sponsored by the Cooper Foundation and the Lang Center for Civic and Social Responsibility.

Contact: langcenter@swarthmore.edu   (610) 690-5742

 

 

Prof. Mubarak Awad, renowned expert on nonviolent resistance to speak on Nov 7

A talk and discussion by Professor Mubarak Awad, School of International Service at American University.

Monday, November 7, 2011

4:30 p.m.

Science Center 101

(maps and directions)

Mubarak Awad is the founder and national president of the Youth Advocate Program, which provides alternative foster care and counseling to “at risk” youth and their families.  He is also the founder of the Palestinian Center for the Study of Nonviolence in Jerusalem.  Dr. Awad was deported by the Israeli Supreme court in 1988 after being jailed for organizing activities involving nonviolent civil disobedience.  Dr. Awad has since formed Nonviolence International, which works with various movements and organizations across the globe.

Sponsors: Students for Peace and Justice in Palestine

Mountaintop removal event

Monday, November 7 · 7:00pm – 8:00pm

Bond Hall at Swarthmore College

(maps and directions)

Ken Hechler

Ken Hechler '35

West Virginian activists Larry Gibson and Swarthmore alumnus Ken Hechler ’35 will speak about the devastating impacts of mountaintop removal coal mining, and the struggles of Appalachian communities to stop the practice.

Mr. Gibson is the founder of Keeper of the Mountains Foundation and an icon in the movement against mountaintop removal. He has bravely resisted intimidation from the coal industry and inspired thousands of people across the country to join the movement.

Mr. Hechler represented West Virginia in the U.S. House of Representatives for nearly 20 years, and also served as the West Virginia Secretary of State. Since 2004, he has also tirelessly campaigned to end mountaintop removal.

Larry Gibson

Larry Gibson

A photography exhibit by Mark Schmerling documenting the impacts of mountaintop removal will accompany the speakers.

This is the first of several events this year with activists who are fighting on the frontlines of fossil fuel extraction. Keep your eyes open for more!

Sponsored by Swarthmore Mountain Justice, Forum for Free Speech, the President’s Office, Political Science, Sociology/Anthropology, Peace and Conflict Studies, Biology, Environmental Studies, and the Alumni Relations office.

 

Lucretia Mott Symposium – November 4

Lucretia Mott Symposium, Swarthmore College

Friday, November 4, 2011, 2:00 – 5:30

Scheuer Room, Kohlberg Hall, Swarthmore College

Free and Open to the Public  (maps and directions)

Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), Quaker minister, abolitionist and feminist,  a founder of the American Anti-Slavery Society, the Philadelphia Female Anti-Slavery Society and the “guiding spirit” behind the First Woman’s Rights Convention at Seneca Falls in 1848, spent sixty years of her long life working for reform.  This symposium marks the publication of historian Carol Faulkner’s new book, Lucretia Mott’s  Heresy: Abolition and  Woman’s Rights in  Nineteenth Century America.  The symposium also commemorates the contributions of Margaret  Hope Bacon (1921-2011), author of Lucretia Mott: Valiant Friend and numerous books on Quakers and reform.

2:00 – 3:30        Lucretia Mott, Margaret Hope Bacon and the Rediscovery of the Early Woman’s Rights Movement and Radical Reform.

Presenters:  Beverly Wilson Palmer, Nancy Hewitt, Judith Wellman and Christopher Densmore.

4:00 – 5:30         Lucretia Mott: Truth for Authority, Not Authority for Truth

Presenters: Carol Faulkner, Ellen M. Ross and Bruce Dorsey.

Questions? contact cdensmo1@swarthmore.edu